LAX83FA260 · Piper PA-32 300C
Piper PA-32 300C · Accident: in flight collision with object
From Scottsdale Airport (SDL) to an unrecorded destination
Event
- NTSB case
- LAX83FA260
- Event typeAccident: someone killed or seriously injured, or the aircraft substantially damaged (NTSB definition). Incident: an occurrence that affected or could have affected safety, short of that. Glossary
- Accident
- InvestigationHow far the investigation had got when the record was published: preliminary, ongoing, final or completed. Unknown where the source does not say. Glossary
- Completed
- API-reported fatalities
- 2 · all aircraft and ground
- Ground fatalities
- 0
- OperationWhat kind of flying it was, grouped by the rules it flew under: airline (US Part 121), air taxi and commuter (Part 135), general aviation (Part 91 and similar), military or government. Glossary
- General aviation
- WeatherVisual meteorological conditions (VMC): good enough to fly by looking outside. Instrument conditions (IMC): cloud or low visibility, flying by instruments. Glossary
- Visual Meteorological Cond
Piper PA-32 300C
- Aircraft type
- Piper PA-32
- Category
- Airplane
- RegistrationThe aircraft's tail number, such as N12345 or G-ABCD. Registrations are reissued, so the same one years apart can be a different aircraft. Glossary
- N8926N
- Operator
- Unknown
- Onboard fatalities
- Unknown
- Route
- From Scottsdale Airport (SDL), Scottsdale, AZTo not recorded
- Aircraft age
- Not recorded
- Flight rulesThe regulations the flight operated under: in the US, Part 91 (general aviation), Part 121 (airlines), Part 135 (air taxi and commuter) and others; for flights abroad, the NTSB's coarser commercial or non-commercial code. Glossary
- Part 91: General Aviation
- Phase of flightThe stage of the flight when things started to go wrong: standing, taxi, takeoff, initial climb, en route, maneuvering, approach or landing. Glossary
- Unknown
- First occurrenceThe single coded event the NTSB judges best describes what happened (records from 2008 on). Older records name the first occurrence in the sequence instead. Glossary
- In flight collision with object
- Also codedOther events the NTSB coded in the sequence, such as a wire strike after a loss of power. Flight Findings uses them for its kinds of event. Glossary
- Utility pole
- DamageDestroyed: beyond practical repair. Substantial: damage that affects the structure, performance or handling and normally needs major repair. Minor: less than that. Glossary
- Destroyed
Cause areas
- Pilot in command › Altitude, inadequate
- Pilot in command › Impairment(alcohol)
Approximate · Coordinates as recorded by the NTSB; no uncertainty radius is established.
NTSB narrative
THE ACFT COLLIDED WITH A UTILITY POLE ABOUT 36 FT AGL LESS THAN A MILE NORTH OF A PRIVATE DIRT AIRSTRIP. THE ACFT HAD DEPARTED SCOTTSDALE MUNICIPAL ARPT AT ABOUT 0045. THE ACCIDENT OCCURRED AT ABOUT 0200 APROXIMATELY 4 MILES WEST OF BUCKEYE,AZ. A WITNESS STATED THAT HE HAD BEEN WITH THE TWO OCCUPANTS OF THE ACFT WHEN THEY WERE DRINKING WITH HIM IN A LOCAL BAR. THE PLT HAD INVITED HIM AND THE GIRL TO FLY AND THE WITNESS DECLINED BUT THE 21 YEAR OLD FEMALE ACCEPTED. ANOTHER WITNESS SAW THEM DEPART THE ARPT AND SAID THE DEPARTURE WAS ABNORMAL WITH THE ACFT ALMOST COLLIDING INTO PARKED ACFT AND TAXIING 1500 FT ON THE RWY BEFORE ADDING FULL POWER TO TAKEOFF. BOTH OCCUPANTS WERE FOUND AFTER THEACCIDENT WITH THEIR SEATBELTS UNFASTENED. THE ACFT WRECKAGE WAS STREWN ALONG A PATH 152 FT LONG ON A HEADING OF 024 DEGREES. BLOOD SUBMITTED FOR A TOXICOLOGICAL EXAMINATION FROM THE PLT AND PASSENGER REVEALED A BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVEL OF 0.15 PERCENT AND 0.07 PERCENT RESPECTIVELY. A 6 PACK OF BEER WAS FOUND NEAR THE ACFT WITH 5 OF THE CANS OPENED.
Verbatim NTSB analysis from the NTSB dataset
Sources
NTSB record LAX83FA260
- Event ID
- 20001214X43370
- Case number
- LAX83FA260
- Dataset
- historical-pre2008
- Source SHA-256
- 89e2df6d848e7ab3b42e7d7c7a03ff403303057a26ca04c95b3ea67201c3ce74
Source notes (4)
- Unreviewed is an editorial label, not an investigation status. API-sourced is not report-checked or human-reviewed. Explicit event totals are used without summing aircraft injury tables; onboard allocation is withheld. Unknown values remain unknown. The operation category is mapped from the NTSB-reported FAR part and has not been reviewed.
- Filled from the NTSB case API where the bulk record had no value: investigation status. Values present in the bulk record are kept.
- The date is the local date, which is the same as the UTC date the NTSB stores.
- API snapshot SHA-256: c564e67ff681e4c04983e39386b7a26397ffe79c4d939561298399bae4716fd6; retrieved 2026-09-21T06:42:51.464Z.